The present invention relates to a train control method and apparatus for controlling railway or monorail trains on a track by dividing the track into a plural of block sections.
In general, a railway or monorail track is divided into a plurality of block sections for control. In this case, it is necessary to detect whether or not a train is in a block section. This train detection is usually performed by a track circuit. The track circuit can detect trains in the whole track (all positions) but it is expensive.
Therefore, communication elements such as transponders are used instead of the track circuit in a slack single-track line. The transponders are placed on trains and on entrance and exit of each single-track section for communication between cab and wayside transponders. The wayside control device receives a train ID (train identifier) from the train by means of cab and wayside transponders, makes sure that the train is at the entrance of the section and the train reaches the exit, and thus identifies the single-track line that the train passed is clear.
This method of identifying that a track section is clear is called an electronic blocking system. Conventionally, the electronic blocking system has used a track circuit to detect a train in the station yard. There has been proposed a method that does not use any track circuit in the station yard, as disclosed in Japanese Application Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 10-76951.
In a slack single-track line, a visual operation by the train driver is singly employed to immediately stop the train automatically for safety when the train goes through a stoplight (red light).
An inexpensive train controlling system without a track circuit can be expected by applying an electronic blocking system that detects trains on a predetermined track according to train IDs (vehicle IDs) that a wayside control device receives by means of communication elements such as transponders of a short communication range on both the track and the train to the whole comparatively densely-packed double-track line.
Specifically, this method divides railway track into a plural of block sections, places a wayside communication element in each block section, places a cab communication element on each train to communicate with said wayside communication element when said cab communication element enters a predetermined area of said wayside communication element, and controls the train by the communication of these communication elements.
However, the following problems arise in controlling trains by the communication of a wayside communication element which is placed in each block section and a cab communication element which can communicate with the wayside communication element when the cab communication element enters a predetermined range of the wayside communication element.
In a comparatively densely-packed double-track line unlike a slack track line, driver""s wrong operations such as over-speeding may increase as the operation frequency increases. Particularly in monorail ways having great track slopes and various track forms, the monorail operations are greatly dependent on drivers"" skills and to avoid wrong operations is strongly required.
There have been automatic train control (ATC) systems that automatically control the speeds of trains. The ATC continuously gives a speed limit to a train via a track circuit and automatically actuates the brake of the train for safety when the speed of the train exceeds the speed limit.
However, a train detecting system employing an electronic blocking system has no track circuit and cannot give a speed limit to the train continuously. In other words, this system can give information only at a limited point. As the speed limit changes according to track forms and the position of a preceding train, the ATC is not sufficient because the ATC gives only the fixed speed limit. This cannot assure the safe train operation.
The present invention has been made considering the above and an object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus of controlling trains on a track with high operation safety when detecting trains by an electronic blocking system.
The present invention is characterized by dividing the train track into a plural of block sections, placing a wayside communication element in each block section, placing a cab communication element on each train to communicate with said wayside communication element when said cab communication element enters a predetermined area of said wayside communication element, and letting a wayside control device communicate with an onboard control device through said wayside communication element and said cab communication element: wherein said wayside control device transmits the current position information and the stop position information to said onboard control device when receiving a train identifier (ID) from said onboard control device and wherein said onboard control device generates a protection speed pattern for an area between the current train position and the stop position from said current position information and said stop position information and limits the high-limit speed of said train by said protection speed pattern.
A preferred embodiment of the present invention comprises the steps of storing a lot of predetermined protection speed patterns for a plurality of block sections in advance in a database constituting the onboard control device, loading a protection speed pattern for an area between the current train position and the stop position according to the current position information and the stop position information which the wayside control device transmits when the cab communication element enters a predetermined area of the wayside communication element, and limiting the limit speed of the train by the protection speed pattern.
In the present invention, the onboard control device generates a protection speed pattern for an area between the current train position and the stop position according to the current position information and the stop position information which the wayside control device transmits and limits the limit speed of the train by the protection speed pattern. This can assure highly safe operations also when detecting trains by the electronic blocking system.